WAVERLY – The No. 1 seeded Wartburg volleyball team downed Nebraska Wesleyan University 3-1 Thursday evening at Levick Arena during an American Rivers Conference semifinal match to advance to the conference tournament championship for a fifth consecutive season.

The Knights will face No. 3 seed University of Dubuque for a rematch of the 2018 A-R-C Championship, in which the Spartans bested the Knights in four sets in Waverly. Wartburg will host once again, this Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.

Wartburg and NWU were both limited to hitting percentages under .200, while the home team held advantages in points, kills, blocks, assists, and digs. A competitive contest resulted in 11 lead changes with the score deadlocked on 24 occasions.

After taking a 2-0 lead, Wartburg conceded a third-set loss as the visitors fought for a 25-23 win to trim the Knights’ lead to 2-1.

A back-and-forth final set had seven tied scores. Following two Prairie Wolves points that led to an 18-18 score, five-straight Wartburg points granted the Knights a 23-18 lead to give enough cushion to seal the match 25-19.

Three Knights recorded double-digit kills, led by 13 from Zaiah Quirk. Sydney Rottinghaus and Claire Marsh tallied double-doubles in assists and digs, while Katie Foster led with 29 digs. Dani Johnson notched five blocks, four solo.